As it turns out, the whispers were accurate: Ni no Kuni II has indeed been pushed back to March -- March 23rd, to be precise. It's a move that only makes sense given how packed January is looking, with titles like Monster Hunter: World and Bandai Namco's own Dragon Ball FighterZ releasing.

Delays are disappointing of course, but producer Akihirko Hino assures fans that the extra time will help improve the game. He writes on the publisher's official German Facebook page, which seems to have posted the news early: "On behalf of the whole Level 5 team I thank you for your patience and further support."

What are your thoughts on this delay? Create a kingdom in the comments section below.

Robert's been a dedicated PlayStation fan since the days of Tekken 2, and he still loves a good dust up. When he's not practising combos, he's usually getting lost in the latest 100-hour RPG, or, y'know, replaying The Witcher 3.

@Fight_Teza_Fight Hardcore PS fans that buy everything Sony promotes will probably have a tough choice to make, and, in general, God of War will of course sell much better than Ni no Kuni 2, but the PS4's player base is large and diverse enough that something more niche like the latter will still be able to sell well even if released close to a more mainstream Western title like the former. I think a lot of the people who are interested in buying Ni no Kuni 2 will have little to no immediate interest in God of War, and visa versa.

Most of the people who are going to buy NnK2 are going to buy it regardless of what mainstream juggernaut launches close to it.

@Ralizah But it matters when they are going to buy it. If they won't buy it in the game's first month, odds are they'll buy it later at a discount. The "hardcore ps fans that buy everything" are few. What isn't few is people that rush to the store based on an ad they saw.

Never played the first one, although I always wanted to. Just couldn’t fit in another 100 hour huge JRPG. I also feel like the first game, although it reviewed extremely well and was universally praised with 8’s and 9’s, never really had a huge following that I could tell. One of the quietest “masterpiece” level games in recent memory. At least that was my impression out here in the West. It must have made money in the East though, in order to fund a sequel. I’m very curious to see how this second one reviews and is accepted.

@Kidfried 😮 I didn’t realize it sold that well. 1.5 million is really good for a title like that. It makes me happy to see these JRPGs do well in the West. It makes it that much more likely for not only sequels but also other new Japanese games to come over.

Totally fine with it getting delayed as I’m interested in playing MHW and DBFZ in January, but Sony won’t just allow releasing God of War (if the leaked release date is true) and NNK at the same week, right? Even if it’s not a first party game, I think they should space them out. Please Sony, don’t release GoW at that week!